Abraham Doras Shadd (1801 - 1882)

Born 2 Mar 1801 in Wilmington, New Castle, Delaware, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 11 Feb 1882 at age 80 in Raleigh, Kent, Ontario, Canada

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Biography

Abram Shadd was a part of the Freedom Movement.

Abram Shadd is/was a significant Ontarian .

Abram Shadd has roots in the region now known as Hessen, Germany.

Abram Shadd is Notable.

Abraham Doras Shadd was an African-American abolitionist and civil rights activist who emigrated to Ontario, Canada, and became one of Canada's first Black elected officials. He was the president of the National Convention for the Improvement of Free People of Colour. He was also the father of prominent activist and publisher Mary Ann Shadd.^[1]

Abraham Shad was born 1801 in Wilmington, Delaware^[2] to Jeremiah Schad, a Wilmington butcher. His mother is reported in several articles to be Amelia Siscoe.^[1][3][4][5]

Abraham was a grandson of Hans Schad, alias John Shadd, a native of Hesse-Cassel who had entered the United States serving as a Hessian soldier with the British Army during the French and Indian War. The story goes that Hans Schad was wounded and left in the care of two African-American women, mother and daughter, both named Elizabeth Jackson. The Hessian soldier, (JOHN SHADD) and the daughter, (ELIZABETH JACKSON) were married in January 1756 and their first son was born six months later. Their younger son, Jeremiah was the father to Abraham.^[5]

Abraham married Harriet Burton Parnell in the early 1820's. They were the parents of thirteen children. In 1830 Abraham and Harriet were living in Wilmington, Delaware along with 7 children.^[6]

Abraham Shadd was trained as a shoemaker and had a shop (depot) in Wilmington and later in the nearby town of West Chester, Pennsylvania. In both places he was active as a conductor on the Underground Railroad and in other civil rights activities, being an active member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and, in 1833, named President of the National Convention for the Improvement of Free People of Colour.

In 1850 Abraham and Harriet were living in West Chester with ten of their children in the household.^[7]

Three years after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, A. D. Shadd moved his family to Canada, settling in North Buxton in Raleigh Township, Ontario where they farmed. Abraham was elected to the Raleigh Town Council in 1859, and was the only person of African descent elected to an office in then-Canada West prior to the start of the U.S. Civil War.^[8][9]Abraham and Harriet were listed in the Canadian census records for the area in 1861, 1871 and 1881. Their religion was listed as being "Quaker", or "Friends" (another term for Quaker), although in 1881 Abraham listed his religion as "Free Thinker".^[10][11][12]

Besides farming, Abraham was very active in the Canadian community. He created a school on his farmland in Raleigh Township, and also created a loan system with farming tools and equipment to help other farmer. He also was a member of the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge, which assisted former black slaves and freed men in their immigration to Canada West.^[4]

Abraham passed away on 11 Feb 1882 in Ontario.^[2] and his remains were laid to rest in the Maple Leaf Cemetery along with other members of his family.^[13]

His life and work is featured at the African American Registry (AAREG)

In 2009, Canada released a postage stamp to honour his life.

Research Notes

North Buxton is a rural community located in Southwestern Ontario. It was established in 1849 as a community for and by former African-American slaves who escaped to Canada to gain freedom. Rev. William King, a Scots-Irish/American Presbyterian minister and abolitionist, had organized the Elgin Association to buy 9,000 acres of land for resettlement of the refugees, to give them a start in Canada. Within a few years, numerous families were living here, having cleared land, built houses, and developed crops. They established schools and churches, and were thriving before the American Civil War. Buxton now has a population of over 400 people.

There was great interest in the settlement among Americans. Buxton was visited by a reporter from the New York Herald Tribune in 1857, and by the head of the American Freedmen's Inquiry Commission in the summer of 1863, established after President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation had freed many slaves in the American South during the Civil War. These reports praised the achievements of the people of Buxton and other African Americans in Canada.

The community is within the Chatham-Kent municipality and today has a population of approximately 200, almost exclusively Black Canadians. North Buxton's historic population peaked at more than 2000, almost exclusively descendants of freed and fugitive slaves who had escaped the United States via the Underground Railroad. Great Britain abolished slavery in its colonies in 1838 and it had never been widespread in Canada. The related community is South Buxton.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Wikipedia contributors, "Abraham D. Shadd," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Abraham_D._Shadd&oldid=882436763 (accessed February 9, 2019).
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} "Canada, Ontario Deaths, 1869-1937 and Overseas Deaths, 1939-1947," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JDN3-6Q9 : 2 March 2021), Abraham K. Shadd, 11 Feb 1882; citing Raleigh, Kent, Ontario, yr 1882 cn 8257, Registrar General. Archives of Ontario, Toronto; FHL microfilm 1,853,236.
3. ↑ "Shadd, Abraham Doras (1801-1882) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed". blackpast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/shadd-abraham-doras-1801-1882/
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Kent Agricultural Hall of Fame bio for Abraham Shadd
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Mill Creek Hundred Blogspot Thurs, 1 Jul 2010
6. ↑ Fifth Census of the United States, 1830. (NARA microfilm publication M19, 201 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.; database and digital images, "1830 United States Federal Census," Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010 Ancestry Record 8058 #2256908: accessed 9 February 2019; citing 1830; Census Place: New Castle, Delaware; Series: M19; Roll: 12; Page: 212; Family History Library Film: 0006414.
7. ↑ "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4H9-CY8 : 21 December 2020), Abram D Shadd, West Chester, Chester, Pennsylvania, United States; citing family , NARA microfilm publication (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
8. ↑ Alexander, Leslie M.; Jr, Walter C. Rucker (2010-02-09). Encyclopedia of African American History [3 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. pp. 525–526. ISBN 9781851097746.
9. ↑ Clipping from Adams Sentinel, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 31 Jan 1859, Mon, p. 1
10. ↑ 1881 Census: "1881 Census of Canada"
    Year: 1881; Census Place: Raleigh, Kent, Ontario; Roll: C_13278; Page: 10; Family No: 48
    Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 1577 #660811 (accessed 9 January 2023)
    Abaham Shadd (80), married, Farmer, in Ontario. Born in USA.
11. ↑ Canada, Ontario Census, 1861," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X3FF-W6J : 11 March 2018), A D Shadd, Raleigh Township, Kent, Ontario, Canada; citing p. 9, line 23; Library and Archives Canada film number C-1039 & C-1040, Public Archives, Toronto; FHL microfilm 349,284.
    • "Canada Census, 1871," database, FamilySearch
12. ↑ "(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4Q2-QVJ : 19 March 2021), Abraham Shadd, Raleigh, Kent, Ontario, Canada; citing 1871; citing National Archives of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
13. ↑ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/165532788/abraham-doras-shadd

• Rhodes, Jane (1998). Mary Anne Shadd Cary: The Black Press and Protest in the Ninteenth Century. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press
• Hepburn, Sharon A. Roger, (2007). Crossing the border : a free Black community in Canada. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252031830. OCLC 85622776.
• Ripley, C. Peter, 1941-. The Black abolitionist papers. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1985–1992. ISBN 0807816256. OCLC 10924134.
• Snodgrass, Mary Ellen (2015-03-26). The Underground Railroad: An Encyclopedia of People, Places, and Operations. Routledge. p. 480. ISBN 9781317454168.

See also:

• Wikidata: Item Q59656429